Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

pletely submerged in four feet of water: He enlis ted the help of some local spectators to drag the bike to dry ground and tum it upside down to drain the water out, but he had lost half an hour by the time he was back on the trail. " I watched Class 50 bikes go by me. You can imagine what was going through m y mind," said Mitchell, but a determined run had him back in seventh by the time he reached La Rumarosa. Out in front, th ings were a lot less exciting. Davis rode trouble-free all the way to the first rider change at the 120mile m ar k and handed over to Krau se with a six- mi nu te le ad as th e co urse merged with the familiar trail from last year's Baja 1000. Krause stre tche d the lea d to seve n and a hal f minutes at the start of his section but su ffered a rear flat just before he head ed down the Rum orosagrade. "It's abou t 12 or 14 miles long - a very, very steep downhill just past La Rum orosa," said Krau se. "They've cut switchbacks int o a rock mountain and it's so steep and rocky that there's nowhere you . coul d cu t the swi tchbacks off even if you were wa lking. At the bo tto m of the hill there's a san d wash with beach sand and big ro u n d rocks in th e bottom and a stream running through it. Going down tha t's gnarly with a flat." By the tim e he finished th e steep descent from the top of the mountains to the desert floor near the northern end of Laguna Salada, Krause has lost five minutes of his precious lead. "I was down to three and a half minutes leaving th e next p it. I just rod e a good fast pace from there p ast Laguna Salada into Cohabuzo Jun ction an d then do wn to Oasis," said Krause. Wh at had sta rted as a rocky day for the factory Honda team was settling in nicely as Ga mp bell starte d to cha s e Kra use in to the 150 miles of desert that made up the so ut hern part of th e loop through Borrego, across the top of Diablo Dry Lake, over Matias Pass an d north to the juncti on of Highway 3 and Mike's Sky Ranch Road. "The d ay before the race Ca pt woke up as sic k as a dog, th rowing up and everythi ng," sai d Cam pbell. "We don 't know what was wron g but h e broke down prerunning and got sunburned and it may ha ve bee n a reaction to th at. We weren't sure he wou ld be well enough to ride at all. and I had to plan to ride about 90 percent of the race - abo ut 430 miles, but that w as okay with ~ e and it w as going pretty well." Campbell passed Zitterkopf abo ut 95 miles in to the race and set his sigh ts on Davis. " Davis actually pulled three or four minutes on me but, once we got down in the desert, I was ab le to reel Krause back in and I was within two minutes of him at 250 m il es - the halfway point," sai d Campbe ll. Ca pt got on the Hon da at Borrego to spell his partner, bu t wha t was supposed to be a few m inutes' rest tu rn ed int o a worrying hour-and-a-half delay. ."I was waiting at San Ma tias . Wh en t he (Zi tterko p f / O nd as) KX500 came through we knew some thing was wrong becau se we had had a three-minute lead on them:' said Cam pbell, wh o rode out to find his partn er waiting by the side of the trai l. "The pul ser w ent ou t - an igniti on com ponent: ' said Honda team manager Bruce Ogilv ie. "The last time we lost one of those w as 1983, so we wer en' t prepared to change one or have one go bad. Normally an y ignition problems have been with the starter." By the time Honda got parts to the cri led XR628 and ma de re airs, the (Left) Ron Wilson, Tex Mitchell and Jamie Campbell gave Honda Its top finish in third overall. (Below) Dave Ondas splashes through one of the few wet sections of the 515mile course. team had lost an hour and a half, and Zitterkopf and On das were back in the num ber-two spot. Kra use finished h is 230-mile ride at the Mike's Road turnoff and han ded the KX500 back to Davis, who led the way through the shortcut past Mike's and then started into the final 128-mile run throu gh Valle de Trinidad, up the goat trail, th rough Santa Catarina and Ojos Negros and back to the start / finish line in Ensena da. "I was happy with my ride because I stretched the three and a half minutes I had after the flat back up to almost eight minutes by the time I gave him the bike back," said Krause. An d th e lead ju mped to a n al most unbeat able h alf hou r when the secondp laced KX500 had radiator problems as the north erly run began. "It w as leakin g Prestone, so we epoxied th e top of the radiato r together by Mi ke's and I went on m y mer ry w ay: ' said Zitterk opf. "The n it started pin gin g because it had lost all its water so, at the next pit, they put on a new rad iat or. I went to 'go and we found that the head gasket was bad - it was pumping lots of purple smo ke out of the exhaus t. I was 100 miles from the finish, and I couldn't ha ve made it, so we rep laced the head gasket." The two repa ir s were com plete d in half an hou r and the KX500 was still in second as it headed ou t aga in but, wi th the competition so far behind, all Davis had to do was cruise. He crossed the finish line with a total elapsed time of nine hours and 24 m in u tes and an average speed of 54.37 mp h to take the checkered flag just after 3 p.m. and was all smiles at his first Baja 500 victory. "I just rode 80 to 90 percent and concentrated on ge tting to the finish line, " said the Kawasaki Team Green racer. "You just can' t make a mistake in a race like this; if you do, you're toast.! had no problems at all in m y sections . It was pretty much a flawless ri de - we just changed tires. We just rode our ow n race and everybody else had problems." Like most of the riders, Davis appreciated the length of the course, which had sli pped to less than 400 mi les in recent years, and the un usu ally challenging terrain. "The layou t w as pretty goo d. It w as tight ~ plen ty tigh t for the bikes. I'll be surprised if the car guys don't complain because, if it was that tigh t for us, you can imagine how bad it was for them, " said Davis . "There were lots of people out this year - more people down there than in previous years, and they had ramps and jumps this year, but they didn't try to kill vou like they did last year. There were a couple of traps that you had to wa tch out for, bu t it was all pretty legit stuff." The only disappointment was the size of the mo torcycle field, which consisted of 27 Pro teams and 15 Sportsman entries. "It's kind of discouraging when y ou go down for a week and a half and put in all the time prerunning and then have so few people in your class - six tota l, I think it was: ' sai d Davis. "It's a lot of work for that an d a lot of chances 'you h a ve to take, bu t it's really importa nt to the com p any th at we w in this race, so we'll keep do ing it." Kenny Parry , race coordinator for the Kawasaki team , said returning to Mexico was tou gh af ter las t year's tragedy, in w hich Danny Ha mel, Kawasaki's top young desert racer, was killed in a collision with a car on the highway jus t south of Ensenada in the opening section of the race. "It was a hard thing for us to go and do this race, but we did it probably for two things - to show ou r commitment to off-road racing an d to win it as a tribute to Danny . It was h ard but everybody rode very ca u tio usly, and th in gs went well," said Parry. Zitterkopf was happy - and surprised to finish secon d. "It was a good thing it was a long race because we ha d prob lem after problem . We were really lucky to finish at all:' he said. "I thought the te rrain was really good this year. I heard there were lots of roads in the lower section, but th e top part that I did was a lot of fun. The majority of it was third gear, really fun stuff, there were a couple of really big uphills, rocky stuff, and we ran in a dozen water crossings. I really enjoyed the course." Third overall and th ird in the Open Pro division was grabbed by the XR600 privateer trio of Ron Wilson, Tex Mitchell a nd Jam ie Campbell , who fin ishe d an hour and a half beh ind the winners with an average speed of 47.36 mph. "We are reall y proud to be the firs t Honda, especially because we ar e privateers:' said Mitchell. Ma rc Burnett a nd Rich Truc hi nski bro ug ht their KX250 home in fourth overall to take the 250cc Pro hon ors jus t five min utes short of 11 hours after they starte d . En senada racers Ed y Garcia and Rogelio Pando, on a Yamaha \yR250, crossed the finish 10 minutes be hind them to take second in the 250cc division, and a ra id ride by Mike Barnhil l and Ed - ,,' Tyynismaa earned the Open Spo rtsman duo overall honors in the Sportsman di vi- . sion plu s sixth in the overall stand ings. The ill-fated Honda piloted by Johnny Cam pbe ll and Jeff Capt crossed the line in seventh. "We went from bein g prob abl y five minutes behind first place to being two hours behind. Another sad story for me: ' said Ca m pbell . "I've never h ad a good Baja 500. I've h ad three DN Fs and tw o break-down finishes where 1 finished but way back, like tod ay. But I keep on doing it and hope for a victory one day. We will get them next time." c,; SCOREBaja 500 Enseriada. B.C. Mexico Resuns:June1 ,1996 O /A : 1. Paul Krause / Ty Da vis (Kaw); 2. Greg Zitterkopf / Dave Ond as (Kaw); 3. Ron Wilson /Tex Mi tch~ U / Ja m ie Campbe ll (Hon); 4.. Marc Burnett /Ri ch TNchins ki (Kaw ~ S. &ly Garcia/Rage!;o Pand o (Yam~ 6. Mik e Barnhill / Ed Tyynism aa: 7. johnny Cam pbell I Jeff Capt (Hon ~ 8. David Rays /David 5mutte; 9. Vance Walker/ Bill Rush (Kawt 10. Roy BueIn.1 /Talo 1lueIn.1; 11. Rich ard Jac kso n /Carv Col bert {Kew): 12. Bebo Gutierez/Oscar Mu noz (Kaw); 13. Beta Verbe r / Ricardo s Malo (Kaw~ 14. J""'Ph Codu-an / Ken Mes (Kawt IS. Bill Nichols /Steve Du tton; 16. Luk as l u nd in /:\1ark Hornbroo k (Kawt, 17. Oscar Garri a/Jmge Garcia (Hon~ 18. Michie Orimo / Hisazumi Fukumura (Hon ); 19. Brian McClen non / Bria n McCl e nn on {Ka w) : 20. Tom Stephens / Brent Poplawski (Suz~ CLASS 22 (OPEN PRO) : 1. Paul KrauseyTy Davis (Kaw ); 2. Greg Zitterkopf/Dave Ondas (Kaw ); 3. Ron Wil'lOn/Tex Mitch ell /Jamie Ca m pbe ll (H on). CL ASS 21 (250 PRO): 1. Marc Burnett /Rich Truchinski (Kaw); 2. Edy Garria /Rogeli o Pando (Yam ); 3. Beto VerberI Rica rdo Ma lo (Kaw). a.ASS 30 (PRO 30+): 1. David Rays /David Schutte; 2. Koji Kato (Hon). CLASS 40 (PRO 40+ ): 1. Michie Orimo / H isazumi Fukwnura (Hen). CLAS S 50 (P RO 50+): 1. Richard Jack so n /Gary Co lbe rt (Ka w); 2 Bill Nichols/ Stt:"ve Dutton. CLASS 22 SPRTSMN: I. Mike Barnhil l/Ed Tyynisma a; 2. Roy Bue ln a /Ta to Buelna; 3. Jos eph Cochran/ Ken Moss (Kaw), CLAS S 21 SP RTS MN : I. Beta Gu tie rez /Oscar Mun oz (Kaw); 2. Oscar Garda /Jorge Garda (Hon); 3. Ricardo Gwrola/ Rene Gurrola. CLAS S 30 S PRTS MN : 1. Lukas Lun din / Ma rk Hornbrook (Kaw); 2. Brian McClennon /B rian McClennon (Kawt, 3. Joe Custer /Tom Schroeder (Kaw ], CLASS 40 SPRTSMN: 1. To m Ste phens /B re nt Pop lawski (Suz); 2. Ric hard Bro wnell /Richa rd Crf"t"nwood: l David FtCln"'lo/l.l1'T1f"<: Tude: H~

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